Mendota funeral director guilty of 3 felonies

A Mendota funeral director could face up to seven years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to charges stemming from a prolonged sexual relationship with a teen.

Brett W. Merritt, 55, appeared in La Salle County Circuit Court and entered a blind plea to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony carrying three to seven years, and possession of images of child sexual abuse, a Class 3 felony. All counts include the possibility of probation.

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dismissed a second count of possession of images of child sexual abuse. There was, however, no agreement limiting how much time Merritt could face when he appears for sentencing Aug. 1.

Merritt answered yes-and-no questions before pleading guilty to the three counts. He will have an opportunity to address Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. at the sentencing hearing.

Assistant La Salle County State’s Attorney Greg Sticka said had the case gone to trial prosecutors would have called the woman – age 13 when introduced to Merritt – and she would testify their relationship turned sexual in 2017, when she was 14 years of age and he was 49.

Sticka said a search warrant was executed and from Merritt’s computers and phones investigators seized a “large volume” of sexually-explicit messages and images.

Despite the age of the allegations, prosecutors had previously disclosed that the charges against Merritt withstood the statute of limitations.

At the time of Merritt’s arrest in July 2023, Mendota police announced “a six-month investigation into multiple and various crimes” assisted by the La Salle County sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices and the Illinois Attorney General’s Forensic Computer Crimes Unit.